Stack One: Nothing too exciting

[degringolade]

 

Cards of the first stack

 

---

 

Today is the breakdown of the past stack for the past when making an attempt to get a peek at what lies ahead in the year following the major neptune-saturn conjunction that has the mundane astrology subculture in a bit of a twitter.  I described my method in an earlier post and over at Greer’s joint (love that place) so I won’t bore you with another description here.  

Now, just to state the obvious, I use four books for insights concerning the “meaning” of individual cards.  Like all things out there in the non-standard world out there, you have to read the different, sort of similar descriptions of meanings and then mix it altogether and come up with your own "interpretation".  The four books I use are listed below.  The different readings range from the earth-muffin hippy dippy to the nasty prick Crowley…a good spread I think.  

Anyhoooo…..here is the past of the US according to the spread that I did on the 17th.  I asked for a year in advance and here are the cards and my thoughts.

First three cards (the past):

Warrior of Coins

Ace of Swords

Queen of Coins

Simple reading of the card

Two coins (pentacles) and the ace of swords.  

 

We’ll start with the:  Ace of swords.  

Wang I think gives the most cogent description best fitting this read.  The ace of swords is force called upon.  You might not like the fact that I acknowledge this, but we have what we have because there is no real world explanation other than we are a forceful and violent nation.  It is in our DNA and for the most part, we have no intention of changing ourselves.  But the card says nothing about the moral characteristic of the force used.  Robinson talks around it, clearly trying to belittle anyone who uses force, but by spending so much time talking around it, she just reinforces the other two interpretations.

Simple reading of the card:  We’ll kick your ass.

Warrior of Coins

Crowley calls him the King of Gnomes.  For those of you who are not caught up with your Paracelsus, I have always thought of his earth elementals (Pygmæi) as akin to Tolkien’s dwarves.  Characteristics vary from laborious, clever, and patient to grasping, dull, and jealous.  Robinson describes the duties of the warrior—guardian of the wealth of the kingdom—as burdensome and disconcerting.

Simple reading of the card:  Yep, we are a materialist culture.  

Queen of Coins

 Crowley calls her the Queen of Gnomes, ranging from impetuous and kind to capricious and foolish.  Robinson says that she nurtures our confidence and reassures us that we too, with humility and reverence, could attain full dominion of our kingdom.  Wang is pretty silent.  

I can’t really think of a simple reading for her.  The best that I can do is say that she is what we want to be without checking first of what we are.  

 

---

 

Books:  

Aleister Crowley:  A Description of the Cards of the Tarot

Robert Wang:  The Qabalistic Tarot

Anonymous (Valentin Tomberg):  Meditations on the Tarot

Yolanda Robinson:  The Revised New Art Tarot